Harhorin (Хархорин), or Khara Khorum in Classical Mongolian, is a town in Övörhangay aymag, Mongolia. It was the "capital" of the Mongol Empire for 30 years.
The town on the Orhon River was constructed by Ögedei Khan in 1235. Persian merchants and Chinese craftmen were main habitants in the cosmopolitan empire. Although Harhorin is often said to be the capital of the Mongol Empire, the MongolKhan lived in the movable palaces outside the city like other nomadic rulers. Harhorin served as the supply base for the actual "capital".
After Khubilai Khan moved the "capital" to Dadu, Harhorin was degraded to a provincial city. Although the Northern Yuan temporarily put the capital there, the subsequent strife between the Forty Mongols and Four Oyirad ruined it. Chinese invaders sacked and destroyed the city and massacred its inhabitants in 1388.
The ruins of Karakorum were discovered in 1889 by the Russian explorer N. M. Yadrinstev.
In 1585 Abadai Khan of the Khalkha built a Tibetan Buddhist monastery called Erdene Zuu (Erdeni Juu) there. Various construction materials were taken from the ruin to build this monastery.
In Mongolia some people favor relocating the national capital from Ulaanbaatar to Harhorin.
Kharakhorum, the 13th-century capital of the Mongol Empire, is a cultural highlight though only a few traces remain of this once great city.
One of the more interesting parts of Kharakhorum were the Mongolian women sitting around, trying to sell bits and pieces of jewelry, and family Buddhist relicts to visitors.
Erdene Zuu was supposedly constructed from ruins of Kharakhorum in 167th century where Tibetan Buddhism was proclaimed as the state religion of Mongolia.
In Kharakhorum, the city gate, as well as the ger and other Mongolian buildings, always face the southeast toward the rising sun; the same direction as the symbol of the imperial city, the great tortoise, stands.
Kharakhorum was, above all, the majestic resting place for the warrior emperors who had been busy conquering the world.
The first asphalted roads were built; although in reality there’s only one, the four hundred kilometers that joins Kharakhorum with Ulan Bator, the two most influential cities; the former because of its historical importance and the latter because it is home to nearly a third of the country’s population.
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